Operation Speak N' Help?: Compromise
by Mikadaphne28
Summary: What just happened? One second, I was busy minding my own business, the next I find myself in the zoo storage being...interrogated? What kind of sick joke is this?


"Why are you doing this? Just because you hate your job, doesn't mean you have to do it."

"It's not like I hated my job," I spoke my thoughts out loud, trying hard not to wince under the bright light shining in my face, "I just didn't have a choice."

I know, you're going to tell me garbage about how '_you do have a choice'_ or '_you just need to start believing in yourself'_. Yeah, been there, done that. Look at my life here.

I'm _Miss_ Alice Scheer. I'm not married, and as long as I don't have a middle name, I don't have a boyfriend either. But that was never a problem.

I never had siblings, I was the only child. But I was not a spoiled child either.

My life was simple, dull, boring and pretty much on the verge of boring. Did I already say that? Probably because that's how boring it is.

That is, until I became head zookeeper of Central Park Zoo, Manhattan, New York.

I moved my face to the side when the light came down upon me again, closing my eyes for good measure. The voice that spoke to me, it didn't come from any of the penguins, but from the Speak N' Spell one of them was holding. I didn't know which one, since the light was beginning to blind me.

"What did you do with the otter, badgers and ostrich?" The robotic voice, though inhumane, was surprisingly comforting. It was probably the fact that out of the years I've worked here, an animal actually wants to talk to me. Even though this was starting to look like an interrogation.

"I'll answer, I swear, if you could you at least dim the light first. It's too bright."

I swore the flat headed penguin narrowed its eyes at me before turning to his comrades with a squawk. The one with the scar across his beak was handling the light so he turned the dial, making the light dimmer.

For once, I was starting to realize the abilities of these penguins.

Don't get me wrong. I knew these penguins were special the moment I saw them, but I didn't expect them to be this versatile.

I've already seen them out of their habitats, and occasionally, out of the zoo. And when weird things happen, it's usually their fault. Well, I assume it is, since they looked so concerned about the zoo's well being. According to me, at least. It's usually just crazy theories, but they're starting to come true with every step these penguins do.

I flinched at the sudden increase in light and looked away. The light intensity grew lower and I blinked away the white spots before turning back. the leader penguin was glaring at me with flippers crossed. He pointed to the Speak N' Spell, and the robotic voice came again.

"What did you do with the otter, badgers and ostrich?"

Oh, right. The question. I haven't answered it yet.

It still came as a surprise to me when I noticed the amount of females in the zoo. Poor things must be overwhelmed by the masculine animals around them...

A frown appears on my face when I thought about the Asian otter. The more I think about her, the more I take into account that she's hardly seen in her habitat sometimes. I think I even saw her once _out_ of her habitat. More than once, I remember seeing something brown near the penguin habitat.

Was she a part of whatever the penguins had? Is that why they want to find her and the others?

"Is the otter part of your operations?" Yes, I said operations. I was probably going crazy now, but I always thought that the penguins were somehow, military. Especially since their _leader_ looked like he had the buzz cuts military personnel usually had.

Speaking of said penguin, who was currently turning those blue eyes of his into barely there slits.

"Is she?" I pressed, hoping for an answer for my curiosity. He just stared at me for a while before the tallest of them, the one behind the Speak N' Spell, made a squawk which got the leader's attention. They seemed to be having a conversation. "Look," they stopped talking immediately once I did, "I just got a letter to have them shipped off. I don't know anything else about it." Now, all four penguins were looking at me.

The situation was getting extremely uncomfortable, and my current position was the same.

For penguins, they have got good knowledge on tying knots. I can hardly move any part of body, except for my fingers, toes, neck and head.

"Compromise." That one word didn't get into my head at that time. "Compromise." I blinked in surprise and looked up at them, or at least the shadows behind the light.

"Excuse me?" The leader rolled his eyes as the smallest of them hopped off the table and up onto my lap, looking up at me with the Speak N' Spell in his flippers.

"We help you," my jaw dropped at that, "you help us."

"What?" Flat head snorted, _wait what?_ Was that possible? Snorting didn't belong with penguins...right?

Either way, he looked pretty peeved at the moment, with his flippers crossed again. I just concentrated on the adorable penguin before me. He was the cutest and kindest of the bunch, even though he was a little difficult back then. Still, how could I resist that baby face?

"Um..." I licked my lips, unsure if I really should do this. "I suppose I could help..." His eyes lit up in what I could see as excitement and his flippers struggled to type in the words before he lifted the device again.

"Thank you. We appreciate it."

"Uh, you're welcome?"

My world just flipped on itself.

* * *

><p><strong>*shrugs* I thought I'll give you Alice's mindset. Not my best work, I admit. *sips chocolate drink and sighs* Heavenly chocolate...<strong>

**Oh, and uh, currently Alice is being tried for espionage, according to Team Penguin. Apparently *rolls eyes* they have this crazy idea that Alice is working with one of the bad guys, and is trying to get rid of them slowly. First the females, then the lower species, and then the higher species. They are out of their rockers, right? I mean, what do you think females are? If there is a lower species, then what ARE females?**

***rolls eyes again* You never heard this ridiculousness from me.**

**Skipper: Layla, I'm standing right beside you as you're writing.**

**Me: Gah! *spins to see him on the armrest* What are you doing in my room? And, uh, how did you get here?**

**Skipper: What are you doing writing about our prisoner?**

**Me: I thought I was doing court trial records?**

**Kowalski: That's the clerk's job. Who is not you. *I scowl* As for your earlier question, y****ou don't actually have the best security, dama.**

**Me: Your fancy words won't faze me, Kowalski! I speak Spanish too!**

**Kowalski: -_-'...That was Polish...and since when have you started learning Spanish? *grins slyly* Is it because of-**

**Me: *swats Kowalski off her chair with a rolled up magazine* Shush up! Before I pulverize you and your **_**glorious**_** brain.**

**Skipper: You're blushing, Lay.**

**Me: I will swat you too.**

**Skipper: *raises flippers***

**Me: You know, it's weird that you're letting Alice know about your operations considering what happened last time.**

**Skipper: Excuse me? What happened last time? How come I don't remember that?**

**Layla: Uh...*****slowly turns back to computer* Okay, that's all, folks. Hope you got some insight on what has happened to Alice. Not that I think these knuckleheads would do anything bad. I think. *shrugs* Oh well. See-**

**Kowalski: LAYLA HAS A CRUSH ON-**

**Private: We're currently having technical difficulties at the moment. Sorry about that. Layla is quite a busy person.**

**Skipper: Actually, the girl's currently strangling Kowalski.**

**Private: What?**

**Skipper: *continues* Which gives us plenty of time to invade her personal space and find out what she's hiding. ****Right, Rico?**

**Rico: Yep. Bye bye!**


End file.
